Marie Savvas | Palindrome

Marie Savvas is the designer behind Australian lingerie label Palindrome. Characterised by modern designs, elegant fabrics and classic colour ways, Porte-à-Vie is thrilled to welcome Marie's exquisite designs to our curation. Here, we talk to Marie about lingerie, lace and the Palindrome woman.

What is your design philosophy?

For myself, the key is balance and proportion. I love the juxtaposition of elements coming together to create something that is beautiful and appealing to the eye, like the masculine and feminine combination of leather and lace.

Lingerie was an area of fashion that came to me through serendipity. My first job in the industry was as a Lingerie Design Assistant and what I then considered to be a stepping stone evolved into a long and exciting career. Ultimately, the technical and aesthetics qualities being equally important aspects of lingerie is super interesting and is what has kept me engaged. Lingerie shapes an outfit, I feel privileged to be exposed to the concepts of corsetry for the modern woman.

What fabrics and colours do you like to work with?

Lace, lace lace! I love it! I consider lace to be exclusively for girls (mostly) and for this reason I always gravitate towards it every season. I enjoy wearing such an opulent material directly on the skin, it’s a little luxury we can all enjoy every day.

Fashion really dictates the colours I select for Palindrome, I assess the runway trends to gauge what coloured lingerie we’ll be wearing under our fashions. I can’t go past the old faithful’s like black, nude and white.

What are your best sellers and why do you think they are?

The bralette has been a leader for the past 3 years and continues to grow, there’s an ease and comfort that makes this style so appealing to a lot of girls. Bodysuits are still on the rise, this is largely driven by the underwear as outerwear trend and makes us feel like we’re getting added value when we buy underwear that can hold its own on the streets.

Do you have an overall philosophy for your label?

We focus on ourselves as the voyeur, every time you wear Palindrome is a gift to yourself.

Do you have a muse or a woman in mind when you are designing?

Our girl is defined by her attitude, we label her attitude as ‘sexy-cool’. I usually design what ‘feels right’ for the brand but when I get too close to a project or too attached to an idea I ask myself “would Bella Hadid wear this?”

When did you design your business?

4th June 2014 was the official date I started a brand after many years of pushing the goal aside. I had no idea if I could get a business off the ground or if anyone would be at all interested in the collection but at that time I was solely focused on my bucket list item of ‘start my own label’ to worry too much about the million things I didn’t know about running a start-up company. Technically all I needed to do is sell one item to one person and that bucket list item was as good as ticked so I feel extremely proud that in four years my small team & I are still growing Palindrome and are sold at some of our favourite retailers in Australia and Internationally.